In the following essay, Karpinski discusses the role of William Dean Howells in the development of Gilman's literary career and in the publication of “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

At first glance, the intellectual minuet between Charlotte Perkins Gilman and William Dean Howells seems vulnerable to Gertrude Stein's complaint about Gilman's onetime home of Oakland, California: “There isn't any there, there.” Unlike the Larcom-Whittier relationship, for example, this one lacks an elaborate prior myth to deconstruct.1 Nor is there a complex text of correspondence to (mis)-read, as in the case of Dickinson and Higginson. But postmodern criticism alerts us to the heuristic value of absence, allowing us to focus on...